Damien Hauser’s Memory Of Princess Mumbi is among 10 features in competition at Giornate degli Autori, the independent sidebar of Venice Film Festival.
The latest feature from Swiss-Kenyan director Hauser is a dystopian fable set in an imaginary Africa in 2093, in which a young filmmaker attempts to make a documentary about a global conflict from 20 years earlier.
Scroll down for the full list of features
Hauser produced the film with Shandra Apondi and former Red Sea Film Festival director of international programming Kaleem Aftab. It is Hauser’s fourth feature; his previous film After The Long Rains played at BFI London Film Festival last year.
The Giornate selection consists of 27 films: 10 competition titles, one out of competition, five special events, nine Venetian Nights films from Italian producers, and two short films. All are world premieres, and hail from 20 different countries. The selection runs concurrently with the main Venice festival, from August 27-September 6.
The Giornate films will play at the Casa degli Autori on the Venice Lido, which includes the Sala Laguna screening room, renovated for this year. The Casa will host screenings, conversations and guest appearances.
Also in competition is Past Future Continuous, the new documentary from Radiography of a Family director Firouzeh Khosrovani, directed with Morteza Ahmadvand. Past Future Continuous depicts a woman who fled Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and can now only observe her parents through security cameras installed in their Tehran home.
The UK is represented through Bearcave, a Greece-UK co-production directed by Krysianna B. Papadakis and Stergios Dinopoulos, about the unspoken love between two young women from a village laden with traditions and patriarchal expectations. Emily Hickin produces for the UK’s Pucci Productions, with Thanasis Michalopoulos, Arsinoi Pilou and the directors, for Greece’s Pame Ligo Collective.
Giornate will open with Ukrainian artist Vladlena Sandu’s Memory, a personal journey into the filmmaker’s childhood, in competition.
It will close with out of competition Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t, from director Gianni Di Gregorio, winner of the Venice Lion of the Future award in 2008 for Pranzo di ferragosto. His new comedy depicts the monotonous existence of a retired professor, which is shaken up by a surprise visit from his daughter and rowdy grandchildren.
“In the stories we present in this year’s edition of Giornate degli Autori, what often surfaces is a stubborn attempt to patch up the ruptures with our past, with the Other, with ourselves,” said Giornate artistic director Gaia Furrer. “Love becomes an act of rebellion; memory and remembrance a political gesture; childhood and adolescence times of truth.”
Alongside previously announced president Dag Johan Haugerud, the jury consists of Italian producer Francesca Andreoli, French-Palestinian filmmaker Lina Soualem, US curator Josh Siegel and Tunisian cinematographer Sofian El Fani.
Giornate degli Autori 2025 feature selection
Competition
Memory (Fr-Neth) dir. Vladlena Sandu
La Gioia (It) dir. Nicolangelo Gelormini
Bearcave (Gr-UK) dirs. Stergios Dinopoulos, Krysianna Papadakis
Short Summer (Ger-Fr-Ser) dir. Nastia Korkia
A Sad And Beautiful World (Leb-US-Ger-S Arabia-Qat) dir. Cyril Aris
Past Future Continuous (Ir-Nor-It) dirs. Firouzeh Khosrovani, Morteza Ahmadvand
Memory Of Princess Mumbi (Ken-S Arabia-Switz) dir. Damien Hauser
Vainilla (Mex) dir. Mayra Hermosillo
Last Night I Conquered The City Of Thebes (Sp-Por) dir. Gabriel Azorin
Inside Amir (Ir) dir. Amir Azizi
Out of competition
Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t (It-Fr) dir. Gianni Di Gregorio
Special events
Laguna (Lith-Fr) dir. Sharunas Bartas
Writing Life – Annie Ernaux Through The Eyes Of High School Students (Fr) dir. Claire Simon
The Peaceful Life – A Tragic Comedy About Hate, Family, And Other Quiet Things (It) dir. Gianluca Matarrese
Who Is Still Alive (Switz-Fr) dir. Nicolas Wadimoff
Do You Love Me (Fr) dir. Lana Daher
Venetian Nights
6:06 (It) dir. Tekla Taidelli
Amata (It) dir. Elisa Amoruso
Confiteor (It-Pol) dir. Bonifacio Angius
Una Cosa Vicina (It) dir. Loris Nese
Dom (It-Bos & Her) dir. Massimiliano Battistella
Film Di Stato (It) dir. Roland Sejko
Indietro Cosi (It) dir. Antonio Morabito
Life Beyond The Pine Curtain (It) dir. Giovanni Troilo
Toni, Mio Padre (It) dir. Anna Negri